Synthesis of graphene oxide-cobalt oxide hybrid materials for gas sensors application

Abstract

The development of acetone gas sensors has been tremendous within these past few years due to their ability to prevent casualty events such as damage to vision and central nervous system after exposure to high concentration of acetone gas. Highly sensitive acetone gas sensors are used for air quality control, projection of environmental patterns, health monitoring programs, and many more. In this study, hybrid materials containing graphene oxide and cobalt oxide were synthesized via hydrothermal method for gas sensors. Graphene holds the potential of replacing silicon due to its unique distinguishable features especially in lowering bandgaps for metal oxides. Graphene oxide (GO) was synthesized using improved Hummers' method. Then, graphene oxide-cobalt oxide (GO-Co3O4) was prepared using the hydrothermal method which results in the formation of porous structure materials that might hold the key to lowering the operating temperature of pristine GO and Co3O4 for low concentration gas sensing purposes. This leads to a highly responsive gas sensing system which is said to be beneficial, especially in developing affordable and sophisticated non-invasive early detection of diabetes systems in the medical field. This nanostructure is expected to detect acetone concentrations up to 20 ppm at a temperature close to the room environment.